In Ed Greenwoods The Iron Assassin Victoria never ascended the throne the House of Hanover held England only briefly before being supplanted by the House of Harminster It is a time of gaslamps and regularly scheduled airship flights of trams and steam-driven clockwork with countless smoke-belching stacks London the capitol of the Empire of the Lion is a filthy crowded fast-growing city where a series of shocking murders threatens the throne itselfEnergetic young inventor Jack Straker believes he has created a weapon to defend the Crown a reanimated clockwork-enhanced corpse he can control He introduces the Iron Assassin to the highly placed Lords who will decide if Strakers invention becomes a weapon of the Lion-or something to be destroyedIt quickly becomes apparent that the Iron Assassin is more self-willed than Straker intended and that the zombies past life is far more sinister than Straker thought Has he created a runaway monster Or the best guardian the Lion could ever hope for.
